If Friday night’s football jamboree at Jasper High School was any indication, the Diamond Wildcats might be in for a lot of fun this season.

Squaring off against Jasper, Sarcoxie and Liberal, the Wildcats took control on defense and took to the air offensively as they fired a warning shot to the rest of the Spring River Valley Conference: Don’t sleep on D-Town.

Speaking of ‘D’, the Wildcats were pretty good at it on this night, according to coach Jimmy Dushane.

“Our defense seems to be way ahead of our offense,” Dushane said.

That’s saying something, too, as the Wildcats connected on five touchdowns through the air alone on the night.

“Our defense, I felt like, did a really, really good job,” he said. “Having as many returning starters on both offense and defense makes my job a lot easier. The kids have really responded well and I’m just really proud of what they’re doing right now.”

Brodie Bien is expected to start the season under center for the Wildcats, and he put on a display through the air along with three other Wildcat quarterbacks on the night. Dushane also praised the tailbacks, led by starter Zach Renfro among others, for their play.

“We looked OK,” he said. “We tried to get as many kids in as we could so we could look at everybody. As a whole our offensive throwing game seemed to be working really good. We were able to complete several passes and we scored five times through the air, so I was pleased with that. We didn’t have a whole lot of snaps, so for us to score that many times through the air, I was pretty impressed.”

The Wildcats are set to begin the season next week at home against Liberal at 7 p.m.

“The kids are excited the season is finally getting here,” Dushane said. “They were definitely ready to hit someone else.”